Organising my polishes
Dec. 7th, 2015 01:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eleanorjane posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
product_junkiesSo since I last posted here I've well and truly succumbed to nail polish addiction, and I went through a phase of buying pretty much every nail polish that crossed my line of sight.
Now I'm managing to restrain myself to the brands that just don't let me down, and it turns out there's three of them: Sally Hansen's CSM range (nothing exciting or cutting edge but a really good core range of colours in the finishes I like), OPI (whose stuff I love, but they're horrifyingly expensive in Aus), and a local indie brand I adore - Pretty Serious Cosmetics, who have excellent service and their polishes are fantastic with a formula the major brands would envy.
(Pretty Serious do have a US stockist you can access from the website, which is handy.)
On Pretty Serious's Facebook page, somebody posted a few pics of how they swatch their polishes for future reference and easy finding, and I was struck by how awesome their method was. So I've embarked upon it myself, and am taking the opportunity to destrash stuff I don't love - I just don't have room to keep everything any more!
Back on topic: here's the swatch/pic organisation method:
This is an A4 printed page (on 80 GSM paper to avoid the polish soaking in), which lets me paint up easily referenceable samples of each colour with one and two coats. (I've only done one coat so far; second coats will go on tomorrow once the first are dry, and then I'll top each one with a single vertical stripe of topcoat to show those polishes where topcoat really changes the look.)
(All credit to the originator of the idea (as far as I know), one Rebecca Lavender-Roberts on the Pretty Serious Facebook group.)
I hate making and storing swatch sticks, and I think this will work a lot better for me. Does anyone else have any process for reference swatches that they recommend?
Now I'm managing to restrain myself to the brands that just don't let me down, and it turns out there's three of them: Sally Hansen's CSM range (nothing exciting or cutting edge but a really good core range of colours in the finishes I like), OPI (whose stuff I love, but they're horrifyingly expensive in Aus), and a local indie brand I adore - Pretty Serious Cosmetics, who have excellent service and their polishes are fantastic with a formula the major brands would envy.
(Pretty Serious do have a US stockist you can access from the website, which is handy.)
On Pretty Serious's Facebook page, somebody posted a few pics of how they swatch their polishes for future reference and easy finding, and I was struck by how awesome their method was. So I've embarked upon it myself, and am taking the opportunity to destrash stuff I don't love - I just don't have room to keep everything any more!
Back on topic: here's the swatch/pic organisation method:
This is an A4 printed page (on 80 GSM paper to avoid the polish soaking in), which lets me paint up easily referenceable samples of each colour with one and two coats. (I've only done one coat so far; second coats will go on tomorrow once the first are dry, and then I'll top each one with a single vertical stripe of topcoat to show those polishes where topcoat really changes the look.)
(All credit to the originator of the idea (as far as I know), one Rebecca Lavender-Roberts on the Pretty Serious Facebook group.)
I hate making and storing swatch sticks, and I think this will work a lot better for me. Does anyone else have any process for reference swatches that they recommend?